Recording - June 2013 - 41

One of my favorite new tools in DP 8 is
called Precision Delay; it adjusts the timing
between the left and right sides of a stereo
track in very small amounts, from microsecond increments to ±30 millisecond swings. It
is something you kind of have to hear to truly
understand, but in short it allows you to play
with the psychoacoustic properties of a
stereo spread, see what it looks like on a vector scope display, and change the relationship between the channels to either accentuate, correct, or de-emphasize that spread.
The tool has some cool intelligence you
can select to automatically align the channels by applying corrective delay to a
channel, and it can also reverse the phase
of one channel if so needed. I have used
this on tracks I wanted to stand out a bit
more in the stereo mix, and also ones I
wanted to pull in a bit more to mono than
recorded. And while I have used Precision
Delay as part of a mastering chain, it has
often been less for the precision the plugin was designed for and more for the wild
and wacky psychoacoustic result that happened when you apply it to a mix.
Another new DP 8 plug-in for shaping the
relationship between the sides (and center)
of a stereo track is the Spatial Maximizer,
a mid-side processing tool on steroids.
While this is able to shape any stereo track,
it is the tool to use if your recordings will
eventually be pressed to vinyl or go out

over terrestrial FM radio, or even as a tool
to get the most out of your favorite lossy digital encoding scheme. This is a timely addition with vinyl seeing so much growth in
recent years, and I am planning on doing
a few bespoke vinyl copies of my new
album. And to round off the batch, the Deesser, Dynamic Equalizer, and Subkick
processor are all solid plug-ins I am happy
to have as part of my toolkit.
For those who do any kind of sound-topicture work, the new video engine in DP 8
supports full-screen video at both 720 and
1080 HD, and can make use of MOTU
video hardware monitoring. And to make
your punch-in edits a bit more secure, DP 8
adds Punch Guard confidence recording to
capture more of the recording before and
after a punch point, which gives you the
option of tweaking the edit after the fact if
your punch was too late going in or too
early coming out. Saved!
Finally, two other big changes: DP 8 now
supports VST plug-ins, allowing seamless
crossplatform project compatibility with the
Windows version of DP 8, and as of version
8.02, DP will be available as a 30-day free
demo that you can download and purchase
from within the program.
Conclusion
I may be one among the few people still
around who started with MOTU Performer

1.0 back in 1985, running on a Mac
512k, and I have migrated to each new
version in a constant dance of software
and hardware upgrades that are full of
promise and expanded horizons, coupled
with dread and gnashing of teeth. I am
happy to say I only suffered one small
glitch during my upgrade to DP 8, and
that glitch, an issue with imported WAV
files, was solved with the 8.01 update.
Digital Performer 8 has achieved that great
balance of stability and innovation in my studio. My workflow was not impacted by the
update, and the new additions significantly
expand my capacity for great sound design
and precise engineering. And being the
good friend it has been to me all these years,
DP 8 has suggested I plan for the future and
see how best to migrate my system to 64-bit.
If you’re a DP user, you’ll find all the surprises
in this new version to be good ones, and if
you’re looking for a new DAW (whether on
Mac or Windows), there’s a lot to recommend DP as a truly professional platform for
audio and MIDI, alone and for video.
And with that friendly advice, it is time
to grab a beer.
Jim Combs (combs@recordingmag.com)
composes, produces, performs, and
records music in the Atlanta area with
Sensitive Chaos, The Sunset District, and
The Good Graces.

http://www.cras.edu http://www.cras.edu http://www.audiorecordingschool.com/consumer.html

Recording - June 2013

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